Has made it almost impossible for me to respond to what happened in Arizona yesterday to U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and those at the site of the shooting that has left her critically wounded. I learned about the incident in a most ironic way: I had just finished a more-than-two-hour lunch meeting with a fellow female council member. As I walked to the restroom, I pulled out my Blackberry and began to thumb through my email subject lines and the news alerts were there. I audibly started to say,...

Answering the question “Do you think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president?” with the “Well she was born in the US and is over 35!” trope is a lame excuse for not answering the real question people know is being asked. Rick Santorum is the latest trying this duck: “What does it mean to be qualified to be president? She is born in this country and she’s the right age. Those are the qualifications.” – Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), in an interview...

Pundits often say that they’d never run for office – invasion of privacy, they’ve done bad things, it’s so dirty, bla bla bla. So it takes some quantity of fearlessness, among other things, to even run. Having now served one year on the council of a small Ohio city outside of Cleveland – seriously? Stop making excuses – it’s the governing that most requires courage. I learned more than ten things this year by being on Council, but these are my top ten: 10....

As The Washington Post points out, her name was never Rosie and she wasn’t a riveter. But Geraldine Doyle and the original image of her that led to the iconic image of a working woman staring us into action are unlikely to fade from our political landscape any time soon. Thank you, Geraldine, and RIP.

It could be easy to say that the No Labels organization represents merely Republicans who can’t stomach the tea party people, but numerous left of center and progressive political figures are engaged with it as well (see the agenda’s list of speakers here). Watch and participate and comment, of course.

Truly must-see tv. With chalkboard font, round numbers, simple illustrations and generosity in applying assumptions. If only everyone had the time (and platform) to do the same with all the inane claims made, from the left or the right. Original post at Writes Like She Talks.

Back in July, Patrick Edaburn blogged on The Moderate Voice about California’s Supreme Court turning majority female (this became reality just this week). Today, with Ohio Governor Ted Strickland appointment of his former running mate, Yvette McGee Brown, to Ohio’s Supreme Court, my state will join that club. She will join three women already on the Court. You can read more here. I’ve got a note into a couple of folks to find out which other states have female majority top...

A woman goes to the post office to buy stamps for her Hanukkah cards. She says to the clerk, “May I have 50 Hanukkah Stamps?” The clerk says, “What denomination?” “Oh my God”, the woman says, “has it come to this?” “Give me 16 Orthodox, 22 Conservative and 30 Reform.” Chappy Chanuka to those who are celebrating. Hattip for the joke to David Cunix. And no, the woman in the joke is not me.

Just sit tight and seriously – ask yourself, how would you react if Nancy Pelosi had sought to do this? From The Hill: Speaker-designate John Boehner (R-Ohio) intends to commandeer a swanky office space adjacent to the House floor and build a women’s restroom for female lawmakers. For years, men have had the luxury of using facilities located adjacent to the House floor, just outside the Speaker’s lobby. But women have had no such option. If women need to powder their noses, they...

I heard about this group, No Labels, a week or so ago. Did some digging, wasn’t too sure about it, just been listening, have a friend who’ll be there in NYC for the launch. And now, Howard Fineman is up with a lengthy piece about it, just this afternoon. You can read it here. Do we think Scarborough unloaded on Sarah Palin today so that he could do it before the launch of a project geared to extinguish labels and reclaim civility? Or do we think he thinks that what he wrote was civil...

Glad he’s making the same point I did over the last few days. From Politico: If Republicans want to embrace Palin as a cultural icon whose anti-intellectualism fulfills a base political need, then have at it. I suppose it’s cheaper than therapy. But if the party of Ronald Reagan, Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio wants to return to the White House anytime soon, it’s time that Republican leaders started standing up and speaking the truth to Palin. Update: Two good, non-hysterical right-wing blogger...

With Newsweek placing Sarah Palin at an estimated annual earnings of $14 million (topping all women and coming in at #6 overall) on its list of the 50 highest-earning political figures of 2010, it’s time for everyone to sit back and let her narcissism work for us. Enough with the “we must ignore her.” She’s not going away folks, not until she becomes so uncomfortable with the negative consequences of being the narcissistic bombshell she is that she decides that even for...

We’re approaching it, if we haven’t already gone past it. And those who ignore this, do so at their own peril. There’s little more amplification that can be done on the tactic of blamming the President for this, that and the other thing. It’s not just piling on, it’s making people turn away and tire. It’s fill in the blank headline time – who even bothers to read the articles when you see the variation on the same theme ad nauseum: Jindal Blasts Obama Boehner...

I’ve been telling people to jump on this observation band wagon for a while now but here again, on the front page of the New York Times, “To Congress With Mantra, Why Not Me?” You can see the array of new stars at this interactive tool. (Editing in: notice how there are only three women out of the more than 30 there – and of those, saying that Kelly Ayotte is a newcomer because she’s not an elected but rather is an appointed attorney general is somewhat disingenuous.)...

Tell me why I should not be scared. Tell me why I should not worry. Tell me why I should not get a little nauseous every time I read a new sound bite or idea promoted by the newly elected public servants. Because when I open the paper, I find a lot about these folks that scares me – and they scared me before. Specifically, I feel the need for a very honest and thoughtful explanation from those who are happy with the broadbase, electoral changes that will come into being next year for those who,...

More than one-fifth (22%) of the 112th Congress will be new members, the largest proportion since 1992, according to First Read at MSNBC News. Depending on the results of nine remaining House races, the House’s level of incumbents could be the lowest since 1948. This information updates a post from last week, Electeds’ Freshman Orientation: More Like A Hangover Than a Party which includes a comment or two wondering if in fact the incoming frosh class is any bigger than any other year. It...

Studies show that women are more effective legislators than men. Now, women are also going to prove how effective they can be at getting past the historic declines in representation they suffered last week. How? Through The 2012 Project, which is hosting a media call today about what’s next for efforts to increase the number of American women in political office. The 2012 Project is a national, nonpartisan campaign, based at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University...

Just the messenger. Peggy Noonan was a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan and took a leave from the Wall Street Journal to campaign for George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004. From her column in the WSJ: Conservatives talked a lot about Ronald Reagan this year, but they have to take him more to heart, because his example here is a guide. All this seemed lost last week on Sarah Palin, who called him, on Fox, “an actor.” She was defending her form of political celebrity—reality...

Love her, hate her, demonize her, but U.S. Representative and outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is running for Minority Leader. Yesterday morning I posted this entry about whether she should run (and I said yes). I made sure those I know who know those who should know read what I wrote. There is a serious backlash about to be felt if those on the Hill do not realize that with women barely making gains, if any, at the federal level, and losing at the state legislatures, women will dig in...

You don’t have to be a professional number cruncher to know that with so many seats in Congress swapping parties, it also means that we’ve swapped people who have been there and done that (aka incumbents) for people who’ve either never been there and done that, or have only been there and done that in local settings under local or state procedures. In other words, freshman orientation for the 112th Congress and for new governors will probably be more like a hangover than a party,...

I’m very pleased to read that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is not done fighting. I also don’t want her to be done leading – for the sake of all women who look to see where they can go. This country, in fact, not just women, need the visible presence of a woman at the uppermost positions of power in Congress now more than ever. If she listened to her own words here, I don’t know how she could not come away with the same answer to everyone’s question about what...

I’ve been writing and researching this topic all day and finally have at least two definitive posts, with a whole lot of links for people who want to see behind the data. You can read a lengthy post on the Gains and Losses, Big Picture, Congress, State Legislatures and you can also scour sources until you can’t absorb anymore at this day after wrap-up that includes a link to the Palin Endorsement Tracker from the Washington Post. Bottom line: The losses overall for women, not so enormous...

Just looked at the numbers at the National Conference of State Legislatures. They caution that these are only preliminary numbers because of races yet to be decided but even so, there is a very clear DROP in the number of women in the country’s state legislatures (more than 100), with a VERY big drop in the number of Democratic women officeholders (more than 200) and a big increase in the number of Republican women officeholders (more than 100). To see the preliminary numbers, go to the original...

From ABC: Dear Mr. Breitbart, We have spent the past several days trying to make clear to you your limited role as a participant in our digital town hall to be streamed on ABCNews.com and Facebook. The post on your blog last Friday created a widespread impression that you would be analyzing the election on ABC News. We made it as clear as possible as quickly as possible that you had been invited along with numerous others to participate in our digital town hall. Instead of clarifying your role,...

The GOP candidate for Ohio treasurer, outgoing Ohio House Rep. Josh Mandel (17th District – sadly, my district), has been called out nationwide for his and his campaign’s widespread use of anti-Muslim imagery, rhetoric and, according to Politifact, falsehoods. Late last week, the Ohio Elections Commission, composed of a Democrat, a Republican and an Independent, unanimously found probable cause to investigate complaints about him lying about the religion of his Democrat opponent (who...